7 Closing a book. Starting a story.

With a soft sigh of appreciation, Loki closed the book in hand as he closed his eyes, trying to absorb all the information in the book.

Although it could not be called a history book in the purest sense of the word, because of its lack of accurate information and chronological events, the book he had in hand was one of the few things he had managed to save from the ten year disaster behind. It was a book his father had written in his day at school for an extra note, a work on the history of the world since the Snake of Change.

A story more than a million years ago.

"We're here." As an aged voice sounded in Loki's ears, taking it out from his daydreams, he opened his eyes and observed the man in front of him with interest.

As he was leaving the Forest of Blood, he had found the merchant's ship by accident and had decided to talk to him, perhaps exchanging some skin of the monsters he hunted or their nuclei for a safe passage to the nearest town, but that was not been necessary.

Easier than he thought possible, the merchant agreed to take him to the city in exchange for a monster core and the promise that Loki would seek him out for whatever business he had in town, even offering a discount of 15 % for all trades.

Something Loki was happy to agree on.

And while the trip had not been what Loki would call comfortable, even more with all the glances he received from the merchant laborers, he could not blame those men for their glances, unfortunately he had notion of how unusual, not to say weird , it seemed.

"Thanks for the ride Steve, I'm looking forward to being able to sell more stuff one of these days." Ignoring the stares he still received, Loki smiled at the merchant before rising slowly and observing his reflection on the metal surface of the flying ship.

At a height of 1.33m, Loki was considered small even compared to other small children his age. After all, after scientists discovered that the increase in energy in the world (which was named mana, so as to be presented in status) began, the whole universe began to increase in size at an extremely slow pace. Today, after a million years, the Earth was twice as large as the Sun had been.

And such an increase was valid even for humans, even the 14-year-old children considered "small" would be at least 1.50m tall and the average height in the world was 1.70.

But it was not only his height that made him stand out, his clothes and his eyes equally contributed to the strange glances he received from the crew.

With a completely black cloak covering his body and a second "skin" that covered his hands and arms, Loki seemed to be covered in darkness, stripping only the white mask which covered the upper part of his face.

What added to the heterochromia of his eyes (A blue sapphire and another emerald green) only gave to the young boy an appearance more suspect.

Fortunately the merchant asked no questions and only brought him to his destination, making Loki even more grateful to the man and happy to fulfill his part of the agreement as he headed toward the city gates.

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The moment Loki stepped out of sight of the merchant and his crew, being taken by a guard for some reason, a dark-haired man approached the merchant before asking with a curious expression.

"I know you very well, Steve, you would not even help your mother without a proper payment ... And a class E core is less than adequate for a ship trip leaving the Forest of Blood."

But instead of being annoyed at the man's comment, a laugh escaped the merchant's lips as he continued to stare at where the strange young man had been taken.

"Only a mediocre trader cares about Luke's immediate gains, and while I'm not one of the best traders in the world, I'm good enough to know that someone who wears a cloak made of a Shadow Wolf fur and uses the scales of a Coal Snake as a second skin, it's anything but ordinary "

Hearing the words of Steve, the man with the dark-haired can not help but be shocked. While a Shadow Wolf and a Charcoal Snake were not the most dangerous monsters in the world, they were undoubtedly elite monsters of sorting E, something that should be difficult, not to say impossible, for such a young boy to kill.

Still smiling, Steve turned to start taking the goods he had brought before commenting with the man at his side.

"And that's why my dear friend, who instead of a few more gold coins, I wished to get a connection, even if superficial, with the boy." A bet, of course, but who knows? He may be one of those few men destined to be the protagonist of the stories "